NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION AND SENSORY ACCEPTABILITY OF WEANING FOOD FORMULATED FROM RICE GRUEL, NUT, CORN AND POWDER MILK.

Abstract

The research study was conducted to develop a weaning food where rice gruel powder is the key ingredients and compare its nutritional facts with commercially available weaning food (Cerelac).This study, three types of rice gruel powder Betti (atop), Nurjahan (boiled), Balam (ayush) were used to develop a weaning food and nutritional composition of three rice gruel powder were ranged from moisture (7.69 - 10.17)%, ash (1.55-2.33)%, protein (3.33-3.68)%, fiber (11.33-18.81)%, carbohydrate (65.05-74.98)% and energy (283 -321) kcal/100g respectively. By using those three rice gruel powder for formulated weaning food where rice gruel powder ratio were different and other ingredients are same in amount. The proximate nutrients, mineral content, microbial and sensory qualities of the formulated diet were comparing with commercial weaning food (cerelac). Among three formulation, Protein content found high in sample A (10.85) % where commercial weaning food (cerelac) was found protein content D (10.01) %. Mg (310-320) %, Ca (330-660) %, Fe(4.87-5.72) %, Zn(8.27-9.02) % also found significantly higher than cerelac. In case of sensory evaluation showed that the formulated foods were less preferred than cerelac. Unlike the cerelac, the formulated diet did not have strong vanillin flavour and contributed to its lower sensory scores. The high amount of protein and energy content supplied by the formulated diet suggest that they can be used as the low cost weaning diet in opening planed to minimize protein energy malnutrition.